Thinking Ethics

UBS ethics' code

I have had a hard copy of their ethics code for some time, but it was not up on their website. So one wonders if the employees could find it at all, given all the events that they have lived through in the past 18 months.

Now you can find the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics of UBS on their website under corporate governance. Apparently, they have asked all their employees to sign it. Now if only the management and executives will show the example, they might actually be able to start a culture change.

Compliance & Ethics Seminar

The Compliance & Ethics Academy is organizing a European four-day intensive training session in Zurich, Switzerland on Sept. 22 to 25, 2008. They do several a year in the US, but this is not a regular occurance on this side of the pond. They offer the possibility to take the CCEP exam (Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional) on the fifth day. The Society of Coporate Compliance & Ethics is an international nonprofit organization solely dedicated to improving the quality of corporate governance, compliance and ethics. Check them out (and the details and dates of their seminars) on www.coporatecompliance.org

Codes of conduct - free webinar

The OCEG's 2007 Webinar Series is doing a free webinar of Codes of conduct on October 9th, 2007.  OCEG stands for Open Compliance and Ethics Group. Registration here.

Resource for corporations

Ethics programs and resources from the Conference Board can be found here. The Conference Board is a not-for-profit business membership and reserch organisation - they publish the Consumer Confidence Index, and the Leading Economic Indicators.

What were they thinking of ?

I hate to bore on about executive compensation, but the CEO of Home Depot, Robert Nardelli,  resigned and is walking away with 210 million dollars of severance pay (more here in the Washington Post) - and not because he did a fantastic job (Home Depot apparently lost market share to a rival company, and share price was down). I don't care if he came from GE or the moon - there is no justification for such pay, and such severance. I think shareholders should insist for a change in the by-laws of companies, that severance packages of more than say 2 times annual pay need to go before the shareholder meeting for approval. And also that executive compensation, especially the bonus part, be put in relation to the total dividend payments to the shareholders.

Yes, but...

So a Thai bank needs a new CEO. The board sets up a selection committee of 3 persons (good corporate governance). The selection committee picks a candidate that meets the criteria. Then the Chairman cancels the suggestion and dissolves the selection committee. Would this be just a facade of corporate governance - or maybe just a farce ? Anyway - true story late December at the Siam City Bank - read about it in the article from The Nation.